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Following, Ambivalently, in Mom or Dad's Footsteps

Published: August 25, 1996

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With sleepy blue eyes that are clearly her father's and full lips that would rival Liv Tyler's, Ms. Jolie exudes intensity. One moment she can be sultry, the next she can charm you with mischevious eyes. Her presence -- and perhaps her tattoos, which are visible in the movie -- is what landed her the role of Legs.

''She was introduced to me as Jon Voight's daughter,'' Ms. Simpson says. ''But she comes in and you can't not look at her.''

Renee Taylor, who cast Ms. Jolie in ''Love Is All There Is,'' which Ms. Taylor is directing with her husband, Joe Bologna, says: ''I gasped when I met her. She was the first person who read and the last person who read. I just thought she was breathtakingly beautiful.'' Ms. Taylor says she didn't know until later that Ms. Jolie was Mr. Voight's daughter.

Of course there are advantages to having a working actor as a father. For one, you get to play together. ''Before I was about to do 'Foxfire,' he was going to do 'Heat,' '' Ms. Jolie says of Mr. Voight. ''And I remember meeting him in his bedroom and showing him my butterfly knife and saying'' -- her voice turns to mock excitement -- '' 'So this is what I'll carry and these are the pants I'm wearing!' And he came out with his bracelets and his necklace and his pinky ring and said, 'So I've got this and I think I'm going to have this on my face and I've got hair extensions . . . ' And it was just like two kids playing dress-up.''

Besides, as Ms. Mastroianni says, ''I know I'm lucky, because so many people want this job. I would find it very obscene to be complaining about my name. When people change their name, you always find out'' their identity anyway.

Emerging from her father's shadow is only half the battle for Ms. Jolie. Like Ms. Paltrow, who is dating Brad Pitt, she's doing double duty as both a famous daughter and half of a famous couple.

In March Ms. Jolie married the English actor Jonny Lee Miller (''Trainspotting''), whom she met on the set of ''Hackers.'' The wedding, a small civil ceremony attended only by her mother and Mr. Miller's best friend, was a testament to Ms. Jolie's offbeat approach to life. Mr. Miller wore black leather, while the bride donned black rubber pants and a white shirt with the groom's name written in her blood across the back. Why, you ask? ''It's your husband,'' she answers with a sly grin. ''You're about to marry him. You can sacrifice a little to make it really special.'' (She drew the blood herself, ''very carefully,'' she says, ''with a clean surgical needle.'')

Soon after, on a European junket for ''Hackers,'' she found people caring more about her father and husband than about her. ''It was weird to immediately be married, and then you kind of lose your identity,'' Ms. Jolie laments. ''You're suddenly somebody's wife. And you're like, 'Oh, I'm half of a couple now. I've lost me.' We went on some morning show, and they threw rice on us and they gave us toasters. I was thinking, 'I need to get myself back.' ''

The search for self led her to take the part in ''Playing God,'' which will be released in the spring. In it, she plays opposite two experienced actors, David Duchovny (of ''The X-Files'') and Timothy Hutton (also the son of a famous actor, Jim Hutton), and she found that she could play characters who have a strength matching her own and the clear sense of identity she once worried about losing.

''She's not a married woman,'' Ms. Jolie says of her character. ''She's strong and independent, and I realized I could get it back.''